Friday evening at the Academy of Music in Northampton there was a screening of the film “WAR MADE EASY – How Presidents and Pundits Are Spinning us to Death”. 800 people attended the film, narrated by Sean Penn and featuring a talkbalk afterwards with the writer of the book upon which the film, produced by the MEDIA EDUCATION FOUNDATION, is based. It is a very powerful indictment of our government over the past 50 years and it draws parallels among the wars fought since Vietnam. I urge folks to view this film, now available on video with a preview that can be seen at the website, www.warmadeeasythemovie.org Here is a synopsis:
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.
Norman Solomon’s work has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “brutally persuasive” and essential “for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee.” This film now offers a chance to see that context on the screen.
Approx. 72 minutes
I was sorry to miss this & will look forward to seeing the movie on DVD (but did walk by the swelling line outside the theater).
I am hoping our trying to point out where the story & the issues are being obscured as this war is taking place with public sentiment rising almost it feels by the day against our presence in Iraq (& yet with respect for the troops) maybe just maybe the tides of our actions can turn? Can they?
Hi Tom, thank you for sharing this! I have been reading about this movie and it sounds excellent and very disturbing. I hate to think our country has so been into war that way we have been. I have paid a lot of attention to Vietnam and Iraq, … but less to many of the others … sigh!
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog